1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to communications and radio wave antennas, and more particularly to slot type antennas.
2. Background Art
In numerous communication networks today it is required to establish communications between stations where at least one is mobile. Important requirements for antennas in such applications typically include having very wide beam coverage (ideally an omnidirectional pattern), compact structure, specific polarization type, and enough efficiency over a specific bandwidth. Cellular telephone handsets, satellite radio receivers, and global positional system (GPS) equipment are common examples of devices which impose such requirements. In fact, the latter usually needs an antenna with relatively more strict conditions, i.e., right-hand circular polarization and a very wide beam coverage pattern encompassing nearly the entire upper hemisphere. This is needed to allow a GPS receiver to maintain signal lock with and to track as many visible satellites as possible while also providing useful signal-to-noise and front-to-back ratios (that is, the radiation pattern has a substantially lower gain in the direction opposite to the direction of maximum gain).
One widely used option today for such applications is the patch antenna. However, these can require tradeoffs that are undesirable or unacceptable, especially in small or mobile applications. Generally, a patch antenna has a usefully low profile but this may be offset by the need for a large ground plane. A patch antenna therefore often cannot provide satisfactory performance where space is very limited. Patch antennas also do not provide good circular polarization over a very wide angular region and they tend to have poor gain at low angles of elevation, thus making them a poor choice for GPS applications. And patch antennas also do not provide a good front-to-back ratio.
Another candidate is the quadrifilar helical antenna (QFH), particularly in printed forms. Some of the advantages of the QFH antenna are its relatively compact size (compared to other known useable antennas such as crossed dipoles), its relatively small diameter, good quality of circular polarization (suitable for satellite communication), and its having a cardioid pattern, i.e., a main forward lobe which extends over a generally hemispherical region together with a good front-to-back ratio. The size of QFH antennas can also be reduced by dielectric loading or by shaping the printed linear elements. Unfortunately, QFH antennas require radiator lengths that are an integer multiple of one-quarter wavelength of the desired resonant frequency. Particularly for portable or mobile applications, this may require substantial miniaturization efforts to avoid having an overall antenna length that is longer than desired. The complexity of the feed system to obtain desired performance is often also an issue with QFH antennas.
Another prior art antenna is the slot type antenna. Slot antennas typically have a planar structure (sometimes somewhat curved) that includes at least one slot, and they are usually fed with microstrip lines or a coaxial feeder in the antenna cavity resonator. Although the performance of slot antennas is less dependent on the presence of a ground plane, the available slot antennas today have nearly all of the other shortcomings of patch antennas noted above. For example, the relatively large size required of the usual crossed slot antenna structure needed to create circular polarization is often undesirable. Cylindrical slot antennas have been designed to address some of these issues, but these have not been able to provide very wide beam coverage and tend to be relatively long. No simple feed system for these has been reported either.
Finally, in many communication networks antenna cost is a major concern. The cost of a suitable GPS antenna may be a trivial portion of the overall cost of an airline navigation system, but a cost-is-no-object approach is just not practical for antennas used in the communication networks that are becoming ubiquitous in our day-to-day lives. For example, in general consumer GPS, cellular telephone, and satellite radio, whether an antenna costs $0.20, $2.00, or $20.00 can be determinative of how a product is accepted in the marketplace.
Like most articles of manufacture, the cost of an antenna has two major components: the cost of the materials and the cost of fabricating those materials. It can therefore be productive here to view overall antenna suitability as having three major contributing factors. The first is antenna design, meaning here does this provide an antenna with adequate or better performance. A number of concerns related to this have been discussed above, and will be touched on further throughout this disclosure. The second factor is the materials-cost for an antenna design. This is considered least herein, since the materials typically differ little between different designs and because antenna designers tend to be very well schooled with respect to material-costs. The third factor is what the fabrication-cost of an antenna design. Some considerations here are which manufacturing technique is cheapest in terms of the machines used, the numbers and complexities of steps that these must perform, and the tolerances that equipment must be calibrated to and maintained at to achieve a desired yield. This last factor is one where much of the prior art is wanting.